Trust me, this is the perfect time to plan for Christmas 2026 – it will save you money and make December a whole lot less stressful

Amanda Jones is one of Ideal Home's new Open House contributors, sharing her thoughts on sustainable living and decorating a home in way that is good for the environment. See the rest of her articles here.

January 6 is the traditional day to take down the Christmas decorations, although many of us will have done this before now. You may feel well and truly over Christmas. You couldn’t wait to take the decorations down, and for your home to suddenly feel much larger and tidier.

Today, however, is also the perfect day to start planning Christmas 2026! Think about it now and you will save yourself money, time, energy and stress next Christmas. Grab yourself a coffee, or maybe that last glass of Christmas sherry, get yourself a notebook and pen, and plan away. Future you will be so glad you did!

Firstly, evaluate Christmas just gone, whilst it’s still very fresh in your mind. What went well, what would you like to repeat, and build on for future Christmases? If you have a young family, you may be wanting to make your own family traditions, maybe that trip you took together to pick the tree was so successful, you’d like to do it again next year, but maybe add in a hot chocolate on route?

Think about the disasters too, so these can be avoided in the future. Perhaps not inviting great Uncle Max at the same time as your neighbour, as they wind each other up. You know the scenario; we all had them. What about the allocation of duties, did you feel resentful that too much of them fell on your shoulders, this is a good time to think about any changes you want to make? Writing them down now will ensure you remember them in the autumn when you're planning Christmas all over again, and importantly, have those conversations with family members well before then.

Set your budget

Now move onto Christmas budget 2026. In January costs should still be clearly in your mind. Here are some of the areas I include, but yours may be different.

Gift giving

If you read my article earlier in December on intentional gift giving, you may have decided you want to reduce the amount of people you buy for. This is a good time to have those conversations with family and friends, (who may also be feeling the overwhelm of gift giving too). Those you do buy for, put a limit on the amount you are going to spend on each person, and total it up. By putting on an individual limit, it will mean you are automatically more intentional with the gifts you select and buy, you won’t want to waste a penny.

Food/drink

What did you spend this year on food and drink? Look through you bank statements/credit card bills. Do you feel you wasted a lot of food? Did you enjoy entertaining, if not what could you do differently? What worked well, what didn’t, was there a new recipe, you wanted to try, but didn’t have the time this year? Note it down and where you saw the recipe, you might have time to try it next year. Add up the overall cost, did you think you spent way too much, if so how could you reduce this?

Write down what realistically you will spend on food and drink over the festive period, however long that might be for your family.

Outings and entertainment

After assessing what you did in 2025, you should have a pretty good idea what you would like to include next Christmas. Maybe going to the pantomime is important to your family, will you be going to that Christmas market again. Will your children be going on school trips?

You may be going to see extended family and friends, write down all the associated costs to ensure this can happen, train tickets, accommodation etc. will you be going on a work night out? Write down the costs of each outing down and add that to your grand total.

New clothing

Do you usually buy any new clothing for events over the festive period? We all typically buy way too many clothes, could you do things differently in 2026? If you ARE going to buy something, set yourself a budget, per person and stick to it, and maybe consider buying preloved clothing if you can.

Festive decorations

Are your Christmas tree lights on their last legs? This might be a good time to invest in some new ones whilst the sales are on. Some people buy all next year’s cards, wrapping paper etc in the sales. Likewise, did you see something online, or in a magazine that you would like to try next year, (I loved all the paperchains I saw last Christmas, but I know they will take quite a bit of time, so planning them now, might mean I get organised enough to make some!).

Your list may have different expenditures on it, do what’s relevant to your own needs. The important thing is that you consider all the aspects and write the costs down. Now for the best bit…add up all the totals, you could be in for a shock, or already have a good idea of what Christmas costs you. Whatever scenario you land in, understanding the costs are important, if you want to avoid getting into debt.

Another benefit of a little planning now is it will help you wearing yourself out with a ridiculously long job list. If, like me, you are the person in your household that makes Christmas happen, doing this will save you a lot of time and energy.

So, now you have you overall cost, (it’s wise to add at least 5% to this total for inflation etc.), then divide by twelve. Each month starting in January, put that money away into a savings account, and don’t touch it. Write a list of actions, with the month they need to be done by, and keep that list handy. Even if you only manage to do 80% of this, it’s still going to make Christmas 2026, much, much easier.